From a sermon of the poet and priest, Father Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ:
"This is what the Church does or the Holy Ghost who rules the Church: out of the store which Christ left behind him he brings from time to time as need requires some doctrine or some devotion which was indeed known to the Apostles and is old, but is unknown or little known at the time and comes upon the world as new. Such was the case with the worship of the Sacred Heart: we find it in St. Gertrude's prayers and in St. Bernard's sermons, but little notice was in their days taken of it, and when the Bd. Margaret Mary said that our Lord himself had revealed it to her it struck people as a new things and many called it a dangerous or foolish one and spoke and wrote against it and opposed it with all their power; nevertheless good Catholics the more they knew it the more they love it and it grew to be, what now we see it, one of the dearest devotions of the Church.
By the Sacred Heart we mean the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ: no other heart of man deserves in comparison with that the name of sacred, since this heart and this alone is united with the godhead. For in Christ there is nothing that is not either godhead or united with the godhead. Christ is god and man; there are in him these two things, godhead and manhood. His manhood again in two things, body and soul. And again his body is two things, flesh and blood; so we are in the habit of speaking, and this at least is exact, that the body consists of solid parts which are permanent or changed slowly and of liquid parts which move to and fro, and are fast renewed. The heart is one of the solid parts, of these pieces of flesh, and is a vessel of the liquid blood; it is an essential, a necessary part of the body, as no one will deny; it is found in Christ, was born with him, beat for 33 years in his breast, ceased beating at his death, was pierced by a lance after death upon the cross, and rose again with him at his resurrection with all other parts and members belonging to the perfection of the human body; it is therefore now in Christ's breast in heaven. And since, as I have said, everything in Christ is either godhead or united with the godhead, the heart, like all Christ's flesh, like Christ's whole body, like all Christ's human nature, is united with the godhead and deserves, requires, and must have paid to it, divine worship that worship which is called latria and is due to God alone.
This matter, brethren, once explained cannot be disputed and I take it for granted that no man, Catholic or Protestant, would be so bold, nay so impious, as to deny that if we are to concern ourselves with Christ's heart we cannot help paying it divine honours and worship. But I fancy some people, sincere and reverent-minded persons too, saying thay they do not wish the thing to be put before them in that light, that there is no need, that it is better not, that it is repulsive to them to have one piece of Christ's flesh thus nakedly thrust upon their mind's eye, that even out of reverence for Christ they would rather worship in him the whole man, the whole being and person, and not, however sacred, every seperate and dissected detail. My brethren, this is an objection in its principle sound and deserving of all respect; instead therefore of denouncing it I shall go on to show that in this particular case it is unfounded, that to to the Sacred Heart it has no application.
I draw you attention therefore to these two points: first that the heart is by common consent one of the noble or honourable members of man's body; next that when we worship Christ's heart it is a grea deal more than the heart that we mean, it is after all Christ himself that we worship. The heart, I say, is agreed to be one of the noble or honourable members of the body. There would no doubt be something revolting in seeing the heart alone, all naked and bleeding, torn from the breast; but that is not in question here: Christ's heart is lodged within his sacred frame and there alone is worshipped. And considered as within the breast, who is there however truly and delicately, who is there however even falsely and affectedly, modest that ever thought it shame to speak of the human heart? Is not all language, is not common talk, is not eloquyence, is not poetry, all full of mention of the heart? Nay I have remarked it, so honourable, so interesting to us is the heart, that there are people who whatever in head or throat or lung or back or breast or bowel ails them will always have you believe it is the heart that is affected, that their complaint is of the heart. Want of reverence then there cannot be in the worship of the Sacred Heart.
The next point, brethren, was that when we worship Christ's heart it is a great deal more that the heart of flesh we mean, it is after all Christ himself that we worship. For, my brethren, this is how we speak in many things. We say that in a town there are so many thousand souls: we mean so many thousand that have souls, so many thousand men, women, and children and not their souls only. We speak of a kind body, a bosubody: we mean some man or woman that is kid or that is busy and not his or her body only. We call sailors or labourers hands, we say 'all hands', 'a new hand', and so on: it is men we mean, not their hands only. We call Plato and Shakespeare great minds: it is Plato and Shakespeare themselves we mean, not their minds only. Nay we call a man a warm heart, the very word, a large heart and the like: it is the man we mean and not his heart only. So then when we say the Sacred Heart it is of Christ himself we are thinking and not of his heart only. Not but that there is a good reason for so speaking in all these cases: if living men are called souls it is because the soul is the source of life in man, if they are called bodies it is because the body strikes the eye, if sailors and labourers are called hands it is because their hands are what they work with, if great thinkers are called minds it is because by their minds they have become famous, if king people are called large hearts it is because the qualities of the heart may them more remarkable than others."
"This is what the Church does or the Holy Ghost who rules the Church: out of the store which Christ left behind him he brings from time to time as need requires some doctrine or some devotion which was indeed known to the Apostles and is old, but is unknown or little known at the time and comes upon the world as new. Such was the case with the worship of the Sacred Heart: we find it in St. Gertrude's prayers and in St. Bernard's sermons, but little notice was in their days taken of it, and when the Bd. Margaret Mary said that our Lord himself had revealed it to her it struck people as a new things and many called it a dangerous or foolish one and spoke and wrote against it and opposed it with all their power; nevertheless good Catholics the more they knew it the more they love it and it grew to be, what now we see it, one of the dearest devotions of the Church.
By the Sacred Heart we mean the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ: no other heart of man deserves in comparison with that the name of sacred, since this heart and this alone is united with the godhead. For in Christ there is nothing that is not either godhead or united with the godhead. Christ is god and man; there are in him these two things, godhead and manhood. His manhood again in two things, body and soul. And again his body is two things, flesh and blood; so we are in the habit of speaking, and this at least is exact, that the body consists of solid parts which are permanent or changed slowly and of liquid parts which move to and fro, and are fast renewed. The heart is one of the solid parts, of these pieces of flesh, and is a vessel of the liquid blood; it is an essential, a necessary part of the body, as no one will deny; it is found in Christ, was born with him, beat for 33 years in his breast, ceased beating at his death, was pierced by a lance after death upon the cross, and rose again with him at his resurrection with all other parts and members belonging to the perfection of the human body; it is therefore now in Christ's breast in heaven. And since, as I have said, everything in Christ is either godhead or united with the godhead, the heart, like all Christ's flesh, like Christ's whole body, like all Christ's human nature, is united with the godhead and deserves, requires, and must have paid to it, divine worship that worship which is called latria and is due to God alone.
This matter, brethren, once explained cannot be disputed and I take it for granted that no man, Catholic or Protestant, would be so bold, nay so impious, as to deny that if we are to concern ourselves with Christ's heart we cannot help paying it divine honours and worship. But I fancy some people, sincere and reverent-minded persons too, saying thay they do not wish the thing to be put before them in that light, that there is no need, that it is better not, that it is repulsive to them to have one piece of Christ's flesh thus nakedly thrust upon their mind's eye, that even out of reverence for Christ they would rather worship in him the whole man, the whole being and person, and not, however sacred, every seperate and dissected detail. My brethren, this is an objection in its principle sound and deserving of all respect; instead therefore of denouncing it I shall go on to show that in this particular case it is unfounded, that to to the Sacred Heart it has no application.
I draw you attention therefore to these two points: first that the heart is by common consent one of the noble or honourable members of man's body; next that when we worship Christ's heart it is a grea deal more than the heart that we mean, it is after all Christ himself that we worship. The heart, I say, is agreed to be one of the noble or honourable members of the body. There would no doubt be something revolting in seeing the heart alone, all naked and bleeding, torn from the breast; but that is not in question here: Christ's heart is lodged within his sacred frame and there alone is worshipped. And considered as within the breast, who is there however truly and delicately, who is there however even falsely and affectedly, modest that ever thought it shame to speak of the human heart? Is not all language, is not common talk, is not eloquyence, is not poetry, all full of mention of the heart? Nay I have remarked it, so honourable, so interesting to us is the heart, that there are people who whatever in head or throat or lung or back or breast or bowel ails them will always have you believe it is the heart that is affected, that their complaint is of the heart. Want of reverence then there cannot be in the worship of the Sacred Heart.
The next point, brethren, was that when we worship Christ's heart it is a great deal more that the heart of flesh we mean, it is after all Christ himself that we worship. For, my brethren, this is how we speak in many things. We say that in a town there are so many thousand souls: we mean so many thousand that have souls, so many thousand men, women, and children and not their souls only. We speak of a kind body, a bosubody: we mean some man or woman that is kid or that is busy and not his or her body only. We call sailors or labourers hands, we say 'all hands', 'a new hand', and so on: it is men we mean, not their hands only. We call Plato and Shakespeare great minds: it is Plato and Shakespeare themselves we mean, not their minds only. Nay we call a man a warm heart, the very word, a large heart and the like: it is the man we mean and not his heart only. So then when we say the Sacred Heart it is of Christ himself we are thinking and not of his heart only. Not but that there is a good reason for so speaking in all these cases: if living men are called souls it is because the soul is the source of life in man, if they are called bodies it is because the body strikes the eye, if sailors and labourers are called hands it is because their hands are what they work with, if great thinkers are called minds it is because by their minds they have become famous, if king people are called large hearts it is because the qualities of the heart may them more remarkable than others."
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1:19 am
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